"Blacken the sky Can't stand to see the sun The truth of light Reveals the hatred that has won" – I Saw The End by Pallbearer

Monthly Archives: November 2017

Set to follow up their 2016 EP Impure Spiritual Forces is Hellish God. The Evil Emanations is the very first full length record from Hellish God as it comes complete with ten blood soaked and fire baptized tracks. Hellish God takes cues from their death metal brethren of the nineties and adds their own little twists here and there to the tried and true death metal approach to create something incredibly heavy, satanic and face melting. After a short intro, Hellish God gets right in to their brand of punishing and bone splintering death metal and never looks back even for a moment. Once Hellish God takes off there is no stopping them as they roll from track to track with ease providing you with a chaotic and head stomping listen.

The Evil Emanations rolls right along with the propensity to maim and mutilate anyone and everything that stands in its path. This bulldozer of a record is just that. The Evil Emanations is a bloodied, vile, morbid and malevolent release that has a pure disregard for all life. Each track is a blistering maelstrom of blood gushing death metal that aims right for the jugular, hacking and slashing until your head has been completely severed from your body. Each track is just as powerful and prominent as the others and just as ruthless and unrelenting as well. Once you get passed the intro, it is all mayhem and utter destruction and carnage from there on out.

Hellish God hardly gives you any space to breathe all throughout their new fiendish record as they provide you with a stifling and incredibly savage listen. The Evil Emanations as a whole is wicked and riddled with malignant riffs that are paired up with bone sheering drums as well as unearthly venomous vocals. Each element and each instrument that is included in this record come together nicely to provide you with a sickening wall of sonic death. The Evil Emanations is a technical and tightly knit record and everything flows together seamlessly. Each of the ten tracks work together in cohesion instead of working as ten separate tracks, and that gives you a comprehensive and well rounded listen.

The Evil Emanations is maniacal and truly terrorizing. From the very first track on, this release stabs at you and gnashes at your already torn flesh leaving you feeling like a discarded carcass. This release is gut ripping leaving your innards splayed for the fiendish demons that spawn from your speakers while listening. This is a blasting, nightmarish, gruesome and incredibly heavy record that gets your head banging right from the get go.

Hellish God does a great job of catching your attention right off the bat and keeping it all throughout. Never once you do intend to turn away from the music that is carving your brain right out of your skull. From track one to track ten, The Evil Emanations is pumped full of energy, murderous intent, satanic over tones and of course some incredibly great death metal. Through and through The Evil Emanations impresses as it is Hellish God’s first full length release. This record as a whole is really solid, well put together and very well performed providing you with an all around great listen to bang your head and snap your neck to.

The Evil Emanations will be out January 8, 2018 through Everlasting Spew Records.

It almost seems as though Degial is the embodiment of death metal itself, and they make that very apparent with how they have spoken about their music and overall sound in the past. Degial has stated that their music embodies death, darkness and chaos, and all three of those things and more are found within their newest offering titled Predator Reign. Through their eleven years of existence, Degial certainly has made a name for themselves in the death metal scene as they have continuously put out solid release after solid release. With each record, Degial seems to get better and better and up the ante for themselves each time they put forth a release, and with Predator Reign that trend continues.

Two years have passed since their blood letting sophomore record Savage Mutiny, and this year Degial released yet another bone splintering and demon spawning release. Predator Reign is death metal through and through. Degial doesn’t mess around with intros, outros, fillers, fluff or anything of that sort. Throughout this record you are presented with ten blood letting, violent and merciless tracks that tear you to shreds from the get go. From the very first track on, Degial relentlessly pours their brand of molten death metal on thick stabbing at you from all directions. Each track on this release is rabid, furious, blood thirsty and incredibly malicious and malevolent.

Predator Reign leaves you looking like a bloody pulp after its run time has come to an end. This dark and murderous record gnaws at your ear drums and tears away at your flesh each second that it plays, and the longer that you end up listening the more and more deadly it becomes. Degial seems to have a complete disregard for life of any kind as they come barreling out of your speakers knives brandished, glistening in the fresh new blood of their latest victim. Each rotted riff stabs at you and continues stabbing until you are no longer breathing. The drums blast and smash away at your brittle bones as rumbling bass lines dance menacingly behind. As the wall of chaos and utter madness descends upon you, ferocious and barbaric vocals add to the frenzy completing the caustic death metal assault.

Around every bend and twist throughout Predator Reign awaits death. Predator Reign is deadly, vicious, ruthless and blood curdling and that is just what you would want your death metal to sound like. Degial’s approach to death metal is uncompromised and pure and the result of that is ten incredibly well crafted and written death metal tracks that you can’t get enough of. Predator Reign is explosive, raw and down right nasty in the best of ways.

Degial over the years has captured the very sound of death metal and pretty much are the embodiment of death metal, and with their newest release Predator Reign that still continues to be true. Predator Reign is a thoroughly enjoyable record that is certainly one of the top death metal releases this year.

Armed with only three tracks, Epitaphe provide you with a lengthy, winding, ever shifting and completely blasphemous listen. As mentioned, Epitaphe’s new demo is broken down in to three songs that act as one whole track. These tracks bleed in to each other seamlessly providing you with a full and cohesive listen. Throughout the entirety of the release, Epitaphe provide you with doomed death metal that is paired with other influences to create an unholy and blood boiling sound. Each track is damning, hellish, and challenging. With this demo, Epitaphe invites listeners in to their dark and bleak world and challenges them to take the long and harrowing trek through the entirety of the release.

Through and through, Epitaphe greets you at every twist and bend with buzzing, fuzzed out doomed death metal in the most sinister of veins. Epitaphe incorporates both genres incredibly well in to their nightmarish and all together soul ripping sound. Never does Epitaphe lurch from death metal to doom as they sew both together with ease to create a cohesive and fluid sound. The amalgamation of death and doom here provides the listener with an apocalyptic end of times kind of sound that is entirely unsettling and unnerving. Once you press play, Epitaphe descends upon you like vultures descend upon an unfortunate carcass, and continue to pick away at you until the final gnarled note rings through your speakers.

Each of the three tracks that appear on this demo crash down upon you like tidal waves. These tracks are weighty and unforgiving and they leave you battered and torn to shreds at the end of it all. This demo is a cacophony of sickness, darkness, bleak atmospheres and down right flesh shredding doom riddled death metal. Once you enter the shadowy realm of Epitaphe there certainly is no escape, there is only death. This demo is wonderfully dark and sinister and for that reason among many it holds you as its captive audience for its entirety.

Beyond the sonic wall of brain melting doom filled death metal, Epitaphe creates vast and deadly soundscapes as well as venomous, intense and twisting atmospheres. The atmospheres that Epitaphe creates within this release hang over you like looming lurking death. Coupled with the never ending barrage of pummeling drums and scythe like riffs, the atmospheres add yet another deadly element to an already deadly and unforgiving sound.

Each track on this release is very well crafted and very well performed. Everything flows nicely together and each track flows well with one another creating a comprehensive listen. This demo is a journey and Epitaphe is your guide through this harrowing and malevolent journey, and once it is all over, you feel the need to listen again. Through forty minutes you are provided with great doomed death metal that you can’t seem to get enough of, and with that being said, this demo is great. For their very first release, Epitaphe have knocked it out of the park in my opinion, and if you are in to doom or death metal or both, you simply can’t go wrong here.

In just two tracks, Last Minute To Jaffna create an atmospheric world and have that world unfold before your very eyes. The atmosphere runs thick throughout this record and is very hard to escape from as it envelopes and shrouds you nearly immediately. The atmosphere isn’t the only stand out thing their newest release titled Quattro though as these sludge merchants provide you with thick and completely buzzing and fuzzed out tunes for you to escape to and lose yourself in. As atmospheric and groove filled as this release is, it is just as heavy and head banging.

Through and through, you are presented with murky rolling riffs that get your head nodding in a heart beat, progressive drumming and dissonant vocal chord straining vocals that peer through the sonic wall of atmospheric sludge. Throughout Quattro, you are greeted with passages that are hard rocking and head banging, and the next moment you are being thrown in to slower, more methodical and atmospheric passages. Last Minute To Jaffna does a great job of mixing and matching tempos and changing them frequently to keep you guessing and keep you listening for what may lie ahead.

Quattro is an easy EP to get in to and sit and listen to numerous times. Even though both tracks sport lengthier run times, it never really feels as though you are sitting for twenty minutes going through these tracks. Each track is well crafted and performed seamlessly to create a cohesive and intriguing listen that you want to keep listening to. On top of that, Last Minute To Jaffna have created songs that sweep you away to their vast soundscapes and broad all encompassing atmospheres that ultimately captivate you and keep you listening for quite some time.

Once you press play, the murky sludge pours through your speakers and in to your ears working their way in to your scarred brain making a nice home for themselves. Quattro is memorable and easy to listen to numerous times without tiring of it quickly. Each element that Last Minute To Jaffna has sewn in to this EP works seamlessly with one another gifting you with a complete and cohesive listen. This EP is at times serene and hypnotic, and at other times harsh and hard rocking providing you with plenty of variety within only two tracks. Overall, Quattro doesn’t break any mold, or shatter entirely new ground, but it is a great release nonetheless as it provides you with two really solid tracks that you can sink your teeth in to.

Barreling out of your speakers as loud and fuzzed out as possible is Possessor with their brand new full length appropriately titled The Ripper. Sludge, thrash, punk, a dash of old-school doom and even more make up the fuzzed out, speaker bursting sound for Possessor. These gents don’t screw around with intros or outros and they certainly don’t provide you with fluff and or filler. The Ripper is one hundred percent metal through and through. Through nine brand new tracks you are gifted with venomous, thrashy, sludge filled metal that will end up blowing up your speakers. The Ripper is the type of record that needs to be cranked up as high as it possibly can and listened to with complete recklessness.

As mentioned above, Possessor doesn’t fuck around with fillers, or intros or anything of that nature. Once you press play you are immediately greeted with buzzing fuzzed out guitars and pummeling drumming, and throughout the rest of the record that is exactly what you can come to expect. The Ripper is a relentless slab of murky, sludge filled metal that you have a hard time not thrashing about to. Each track gets right under your skin and imprinted in your mind making this for an unforgettable listen. As heavy as each track is, they are equally catchy and highly intoxicating.

Possessor took what they did really well with Dead by Dawn and amplified that and even added in a few more elements to create an overall sound that is grimy, dirty, and just flat out heavy. The Ripper is filled with plenty of venom and more than enough punk and thrash attitude to put you in your place. Possessor make it well known that they are back with a thrashing mad release as they barrel straight out of a deep, dark cavern in hell and burst through your speakers from the get go. Once you lift your finger off of the play button you become under siege by hard hitting and hard rocking tune after tune.

Each track on this release is heavy, catchy, grime filled and down right sinister making The Ripper one hell of a good release. Each track greets your gnarled ears with an addicting fuzzed out sound that you can’t get enough of. This sonic wall of sludge filled madness is something to behold and something to listen to repeatedly until you just can’t stand it anymore. There isn’t a let down track on this record as each track is just as solid as the last and they just keep getting better and better the more that you listen.

The Ripper is a hard record to pass up on, and one that shouldn’t be passed up on. This should be a record that is on everyone’s list to listen to at the very least. The Ripper is highly entertaining, heavy, memorable, groovy, catchy and much more. You really can’t go wrong with The Ripper as it provides you with nine face melting tunes that get you head banging nearly immediately. This is a hard record to quit once you begin listening.

The Ripper is out now right and can be found here: https://possessor.bandcamp.com/album/the-ripper

With a unique and interesting mash up of death metal, crossover, and hardcore, Nightfear bring to us their newest EP titled Cryptasm. Presented on this EP are five original tracks as well as a cover of The Misfits song We Bite. Each of the five original tracks are just as ripping and skull grinding as the last as Nightfear provides you with nothing but head banging and heavy tunes. The overall sound is very reminiscent of old-school death metal, but instead of entirely following in the footsteps of their death metal fore fathers, Nightfear add their own twist creating something that is entirely unique.

From the very first note on you are greeted with nothing but flesh tearing riffs that are only to be paired with bone cracking drumming as well as ghoulish blood curdling vocals. Each track is incredibly energized and hardly ever played at a slower tempo providing you with a chaotic and stampeding listen. Once one cut ends, another begins gifting you with a suffocating and life threatening listen. Of the four original tracks on this release, all five are face melting from beginning to end.

Nightfear never really lets you settle in to their new EP Cryptasm as they lay the hammer down right from the get go. As mentioned above, Nightfear never really slows their tempo down too much at all, so for five straight tracks you become under siege and pummeled within an inch of your life. Cryptasm is entirely menacing and powerful and no matter who you are, you will feel as though you have been chewed up and spit right back out after listening.

Cryptasm is a monster of an EP and in only five tracks you feel as though you have listened to a full length. Each track is fairly short with the two longest running at just over three minutes each. Even as short as this EP is however, you are provided with an incredibly intense and savage listen. Once you press play, Cryptasm hits you, and hits you hard. It attacks you from all sides without warning and continues its oppressive sonic assault until the final gnarled note has sounded off, and once the EP is all over with, you reach to listen again.

This release is pumped full of dangerous metallic goodness for your ever scarred ears. Cryptasm is an incredibly entertaining, heavy and memorable listen as well as a release that you will keep coming back to over and over again.

Nightfear Bandcamp: https://nightfearpa.bandcamp.com/album/cryptasm

The second cassette pressing will be out December 11, 2017 limited to 100 copies through Graven Earth Records.

Emerging from an ever rotting tomb is Hamvak and slithering up through the abyss with them is their newest offering simply titled I. There is one lone wolf that is behind this barbaric project, and through three tracks he provides you with raw, savage and completely bloodied blackened death metal. It doesn’t take long before Hamvak gets right in to the thick of their onslaught, and once they do they rain hammering drums and dissonant sludge filled riffs for your filthy enjoyment.

There is a little intro at the beginning of the opening track Altars Of A Thousand Plagues, but once that subsides, Hamvak unleash their sonic assault. Hamvak does a good job of combining elements of death metal and black metal to gift you with one venomous and grim listen. There isn’t too much time for reprieve on this EP as Hamvak hammers away from track to track to track. The only true solace that you get is at the very beginning of the EP, other than that you are pummeled with dissonant riffs, rumbling bass lines, ever solid drumming and gritty demonic vocals that seep through the never ending sonic wall.

I is a solid EP through and through as it provides you with three tracks of entertaining and neck snapping blackened death metal. Each track is just as ripping as the last and each of the three tracks flow nicely with one another creating a cohesive and well put together effort. While I isn’t a ground breaking release, and while we aren’t hearing something that is entirely new, it still is a solid effort nonetheless. From beginning to end, Hamvak provides you with blasting and pummeling blackened tunes that just don’t seem to quit hammering away at your soul until you are completely done listening.

It will be nice to see what Hamvak has in store next, whether it be in the form of an EP or a full length. For now however, we have this three track EP of twisted blackened death metal for our enjoyment.

A little over three years has passed since Demons came out and after a couple of lineup changes, Bloodshot Dawn is back at it again and set to release their newest death metal onslaught Reanimation early next year. Reanimation brings ten brand new tracks to the table, and in typical Bloodshot Dawn fashion, each track is just as melodic and captivating as they are heavy and unrelenting. From beginning to end, Reanimation captures its audience as it provides them with technical, melodic and heavy death metal that is hard to forget.

As a whole, Reanimation is a tightly knit and well executed record that provides you with some of the most technical and melodic death metal for you to crank your necks to. From beginning to end you become under siege by seamless guitar work that is supplemented by scorching solos, storming blasting drum work as well as varied vocals that range from unearthly growls to gritty gravel filled screams. If you ignore everything else that this record has to offer, the musicianship wizardry alone is enough to captivate you and make you want to listen over and over again.

Each track is well constructed, and each track flows well in to the next providing you with a cohesive and well rounded listen. Bloodshot Dawn does a great job of mixing together their more melodic elements with their more blasting and punishing elements to create a sound that is unpredictable and mesmerizing at the same time. This record has a great knack for hammering itself straight in to your brain only to live there for quite some time. Each track on this release is entirely memorable and incredibly entertaining. There isn’t a cut on Reanimation that feels as though it doesn’t belong, and there certainly isn’t a track on this album that you would feel the need to skip. Each of the ten tracks on this record are solid, well put together and addicting to listen to.

Once you press play and the blasting drums and face melting riffs pour from your speakers, you have no other choice but to head bang along and hope that your head is still intact after the album has concluded. After some lineup changes after Demons was released, Bloodshot Dawn seem to have come back better than ever and show that off entirely with Reanimation. This is a solid, cohesive and well put together release that is highly memorable and addicting to listen to.

If you are a fan of technical melodic death metal you just simply cannot go wrong with Reanimation. From beginning to end you find yourself lost within the world that Bloodshot Dawn has created within this record, and once you finish listening you feel a massive need to listen again and again.

Like a nightmare unfurling before you in sonic fashion, Cloak of Skies treats you to a wonderfully demented and dark listen. As twisted as this record is, it is like heroin for your ears. Cloak of Skies is an addicting record from beginning to end as you press play over and over again, submerging yourself in sludge filled doom bliss. Cloak of Skies is an oppressive record that provides you with an apocalyptic atmosphere that you have a hard time escaping from. This entire record is nightmarish and at the same time it is so very captivating. Among the nightmare inducing tones are traces of psychedelic elements as well providing you with vast ever shifting and twisting soundscapes.

From the very beginning of Cloak of Skies, you understand what a monster the record is going to be. The murky riffs dripping with sludge that is paired with the ever buzzing bass, heavy drumming and dissonant gnarled vocals pull you in and keep you along for a very harrowing and trippy listen. Cloak of Skies is a disturbing and hair raising listen, but even so you have a hard time pulling yourself away from it. From the massive and intense opener Pool of Failure on, Cloak of Skies retains that intensity and that immense sound throughout. Each track is just as dense and monstrous as the first as Drug Honkey buries you under waves of certain doom and despair.

Cloak of Skies is almost like an acid trip gone sideways. Drug Honkey pairs their psychedelic elements with their dream eating brand of sludge filled doom expertly to create a massively bone chilling sound. Each of the tracks on this record are done very well as they are all cohesive and roll together very well creating an entirely murky and ghastly sound that you can’t get enough of. This odd yet mesmerizing record grabs a hold of you from the first note dragging you along with it through a murky never ending abyss.

The longer that you listen and the longer that Cloak of Skies trudges along, the more and more that you end up sinking in to it. This nasty and ugly record is something to behold as Drug Honkey provides you with something unique and ultimately heavy. Drug Honkey incorporates sludge, doom and the excellent use of synths to gift you with an ill-fated, massive and soul blackening listen. The odd sounds that seep through your speakers are irresistible and you ultimately keep coming back for more and more.

This dissonant cloaked in apocalyptic gloom release is one solid and damning piece of metal. Cloak of Skies is a undeniable record that is hard to pass up on and one that should’t be passed up on.

Shrouded in mystery and covering themselves in ritualistic garments making themselves look like proper wraiths is Jupiterian. They stand out from the crowd already visually, but does their music follow suite? Yes. Yes it does. Terraforming is a unique, earth moving, murky and dissonant release that is hard to forget. This release does a great job of cloaking you in a thick murky fog for its entirety as well as providing you with dense chilling atmospheres. Terraforming’s atmosphere lurks and stalks all throughout this release and acts as an entity almost all its own.

As a matter of fact, the atmosphere that shifts and slithers its way through the sonic doom madness often seems to be larger and more grand than the weighty sludge filled riffs themselves. With that being said, the atmosphere that is presented within this record compliments the droning, ever murky and dissonant riffs and eccentric drumming perfectly. Every element that is in this record comes together perfectly to create a swirling mass of sonic doom madness. Terraforming is a cohesive well constructed record that transports you from the comfort of your own home to a soundscape that is dark, ghastly and all together nightmarish.

Each track is striking and enveloping as they each pull you in to a chasm of utter darkness. Terraforming is a mystifying and captivating release that is entirely hard to not want to listen to. As the record plays on, each track just gets better and better. There isn’t a cut on Terraforming that you would want to exclude from your listen or from the album in general. Everything flows together so nicely creating a wonderfully dark and venomous soundscape.

These gloomy tracks in which Terraforming harbors evoke feelings of dread and despair and stab right at the heart of the listener for the entirety of the record. These spectral and haunting tracks are sure to stick with you for some time to come as this release does a good job of getting right under your skin. Terraforming is an oppressive and monolithic record, one that makes you succumb to its sheer weight. Sooner rather than later you become buried under all of the murky riffs, dissonant drumming, chilling vocals and ever shifting dense atmosphere.

The musicianship on this record is perfect and versatile and throughout this release, Jupiterian really shows what they are made of. Each track is so well done and each element that is sewn in to this record works so well with one another ultimately providing you with one hell of a memorable listen. From the earth moving riffs to the pounding drumming to the harrowing vocals to the acoustic and synthesizer touches, Jupiterian mixes it all together so well to create a world of their own.

This is a dense, unique, interesting and incredibly captivating record that you just shouldn’t be missing out on. Not enough can be said about this release and I may not even be doing it justice, but I can say that this is a great album not only for the doom genre but for metal in general. Jupiterian doesn’t seem afraid to try new things and expand their sound and branch out and because of that, we have an excellent record to listen to. Terraforming is a work of art, one that will be remembered for quite some time to come.